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Carnival Of Homeschooling – “First Teacher” Appreciation Edition

Welcome to the “First Teacher” Appreciation Edition of Carnival of Homeschooling!

Parents are children’s first teachers and that important reminder should always prevail. Our little ones gain contact with grandparents, siblings and other family and friends to help teach communication and socializing skills. Many youngsters now go into an institutional school environment at ages as early as three. Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and with no disrespect to the people working hard in the school classrooms, this 384th Carnival of Homeschooling will celebrate the first and most important teachers.

Eclectic Momma explains why it’s important to determine the unique and important priorities before planning for the next school year in her post – Family Priorities.

Janine Cate of Why Homeschool lists how she uses The Art of Delegation. The Cate familyeven has a bumper sticker on their car saying: “I don’t know why they call it homeschooling. I’m always in my car.” Many families could relate to that and the use of outside resources for those teaching moments.

Laura Grace Weldon notes parents “have more resources for learning than you might imagine. Not money, but the people you know. They have all sorts of expertise and experience to share. Add another degree of separation, the people they know, and the range wildly expands. These are your knowledge networks.” Read her post on how toActivate Your Knowledge Networks.

I’ve had the same concerns as Andrea. If we’ve taught them how to learn and evaluate, the gaps fill in. Children will eventually move on to other teachers. The son pictured above with his mentor was receiving his own teacher’s certificate. He works with children every day, while also studying for a university degree.

Learn, teach and release with much love.

From a 1980 conversation with John Holt, I leave you with a thought many homeschoolers have learned along the way about our children:

Marlene Bumgarner – What is your philosophy of learning?John Holt – Basically that the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we need to learn; we are good at it; we don’t need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it.